Voice mail systems are in widespread use. Voice mail systems can be used with conventional POTS telephone systems (Plain Old Telephone Service) and/or with the more modern VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems.
Some older voice mail systems merely function as a telephone answering machine. That is, they answer calls and record messages when an extension is not answered. Many more modern voice mail systems are closely integrated with, and they form an integral part of a PBX system (Private Branch Exchange). Such voice mail systems can provide many more functions than do the older type of voice mail systems. For example, in many modern voice mail systems when a user calls into voicemail from a telephone extension attached to the PBX, the number of the extension from which the call was placed is automatically recognized by the voice mail system.
A modern voice mail system can be associated with a single PBX or with a number of interconnected PBX systems, and the PBX systems can be either POTS systems, VoIP systems or a combination of such systems. Modern voice mail systems can also facilitate the interconnection of telephones not directly connected to a PBX system. Such systems can provide both the conventional functions of an answering machine along with a wide variety of related functions. For example, in many such systems when a voice mail message is left for one person from another person connected to the same system, the system automatically identifies the message as being from the person assigned to the extension that placed the call.
Many modern telephone handsets include a display. The display can be used to identify the calling party, that is, a caller ID function, and to display other text messages. Typically, for extensions connected to the system, a caller's name is displayed on the called party's handset.
Modern voice mail systems typically include a database that stores subscriber information. If a call originates from a telephone number that is identified in the database, the call is said to originate from an “identified caller” and the caller's name is displayed on the called handset. Furthermore the identified callers name is automatically associated with any messages the caller leaves. If a call is made from a telephone number that is not identified in the system's database, the call is said to originate from an “unidentified caller” and the caller's name cannot be displayed or associated with any messages that are left.
In modern voice mail systems, users and the system administrator have access to the system's database by means of a web based interface. That is, using a conventional browser and conventional web page access methods, users and the administrator can add or delete information from the system's database.
Using the web based interface a user can identify external telephone numbers (those not directly connected to the PBX) so that calls from such telephones are thereafter treated as calls from an “identified” party. For example, a user could enter into the database the telephone number of his cell phone, mobile phone, etc. Calls from such telephones would then be calls from an identified party. Once the number of such a telephone has been entered into the database, if a caller from such a telephone places a call to an extension connected to the system and leaves a message, the messages is automatically marked as originating from the caller in the same way that it would be identified if it originated from the callers extension on the system.
In many existing system, there are also additional benefits that can be achieved by users who have registered non PBX associated telephone devices. For example, the recipient of a message can reply to the message without entering the caller's number. Another benefit is that a user may be able to group all messages from a particular caller together for achieving or searching even though they originated from different devices.
The retrieval of messages from an external telephone is also facilitated if the external telephone has been registered in the system's database. If a user is using a PBX associated telephone, recorded messages are typically retrieved by pressing a message button and entering a password. The voice mail system knows which messages to retrieve because it identifies the user by the extension being used. Furthermore, the user need only enter a password. The user does not have to identify the extension since the system knows the extension from which the call originated.
In order to retrieve messages from a telephone that is not associated with a particular PBX voice mail system, a user generally calls a message retrieval telephone number, and the voice messaging system prompts for the user's extension and the user's password. If the external telephone number has been registered in the system's database, the system recognizes the user who is calling and the system merely needs prompt for the user's password, and not for the user's extension.
There are many different types of voice mail systems that are commercially available, each of which has a particular set of available features. Some commercially available systems have some but not all the functions described above. A commercially available system that implements all of the above features (and others) is the voice mail system available from Cisco Systems Inc. under the trademark Unity™.
The present invention is directed to a feature for a voice mail system that facilitates registering external telephones with a voice mail system so that the system can recognize calls from such telephones and eliminate the need to prompt for an extension number.